GrumbleJack would be quick but noisy I think. We may do well to interrogate some people before we leave, a cook might have knowledge of the area and at least be able to tell us the time of night or when the guards are due to eat. I say we charge the kitchen but demand instant surrender Lucetta suggests.
Sounds like a workable plan but we should send GrumbleJack in first, he is... impressive to say the least. The three biggest concerns here are the cooks are trained, have trained men with them or alert the guards nearby. If we could get instant surrender that would be perfect but we need some way of quickly handling people who don't cooperate. We should give a bow to Arthur and have an acid splash ready. Otherwise I believe we are ready," Iacobus returns.
"No offence big guy," Arthur says to Grumblejack before turning to the rest of the party "But is he fast enough to catch them if they flee?"
Let's do it, time's a wasting and the longer we are the less chance we have of escaping
Lucetta will urge everyone in to position and be ready to follow as soon as they move through the doors.
You all move across the dining hall towards the open kitchen door, keeping an eye on the closed door to the north just in case someone decides to poke their head out. Reaching the kitchen, you all burst into the room with the massive ogre in the lead. Inside, you find a middle aged man and woman puttering about the a large well appointed kitchen. A large pot of something simmers over a low fire and loaves of bread lay proofing int thing pans.
Grumblejack brandishes his sword, which looks so small in his massive fists. With his free hand he brings a massive clawed finger up to his wide mouth and blows a drool speckled "Shhhh" Grinning, his wicked yellow tusks glinting in the fire light, he adds, "If yous scream, I get to eat yous."
A pan clatters to the floor, dropped from suddenly nerveless finger, but neither of the pair say anything.
Lucetta nods appreciatively at GrumbleJack, she notes that was one of the best intimidations she's yet seen. Turning to the servants she whispers harshly.
If you value your lives then explain everything you know about this place, when the guards are due to eat, how you get in and out, when you are expected to leave.
her tone brooks no disagreement
If you cooperate we can tie you up and gag you, if you do not... she glances sideways at GrumbleJack.
she also glances around for a pack or bag, and anything they can grab in the way of food, supplies or weapons.
"...Let's just say the death would be the least of your worries" Iacobus finishes for Lucetta as he saunters into the room.
Seeing that the big folk seem to have everything in the kitchen well in hand, Poki settles into the shadows under one of the tables in the dining hall, so that she can watch the door they came from as well as the door to the north for any intruders.
Almost scared himself by Lucetta and Iacobus Arthur quickly moves past Grumblejack trying to close the gab. Once there he says: "Please do as they say," he urges and adds: "And I am hungry do you have any fresh food?"
The pair back away from you slowly. The man sliding to stand a little in front of the woman. The pair eye a back door, weighing the odds, but Grumblejack eases over to block the way, extinguishing even that faint hope.
"Please...Take whatever you want. Just don't hurt us."
Nosing about. You find a reasonably well stocked kitchen, with as much food stuff as you could want to carry.
Iacobus gives the couple a cold smile.
"We have no need to hurt you and, if you stay quiet, it will hopefully stay that way. But you might put us in an even better mood if you would tell us a few things, such as how many guards there are, what their shifts are, where their gear is kept or maybe even a good way out of here. But you might feel more comfortable if you sat down."
He then half-herds, half ushers (or at least tries to) the pair to some seats and, flicking a glance to the big man, motions to Arthur to start gathering food and other supplies. He notes Poki's whereabouts and nods before inviting Lucetta into grilling the kitchen staff.
My friend is right, it would go much better for you to co-operate, your masters will understand you had no choice. And you want to keep each other safe don't you?
she smiles at them, building on the surrounding threat of her companions presence
Answer his questions
another glance at GrumbleJack
quickly please...
She'll also look around for a bag or satchel of some sort, filling it with light food that won't spoil quickly, and grab a filleting knife or similar whilst she's at it.
The man looks at the ogre nervously, before answering in a rough voice, "I don't rightly now the guard's schedules. Me and the misus just come in to make the bread for breakfast. I think that there is a storage room off the main hall and as for getting out of here. I've never used any way other than the front gate."
Co-operation is good she reassures the man
You are protecting your wife here, you wouldn't want her to come to any harm would you?
she smiles, a not altogether pleasant experience for the two servants.
So it is early morning if you are here baking for breakfast, not ideal as we'll miss our rendezvous with the boat but there we go.
she frowns.
So last thing before we leave you in peace, rather than pieces, is there anything else we should know about security here? Do you have passes issued or have to write your names down at the gate? Bear in mind if you lie now and we find out, we'll make it the last thing we do to find you...
Once they have replied, Lucetta will direct them to be tied and gagged and locked in the kitchen cupboard.
We should look in that other room to see if there's anything we can use, and we should be quick now as it's likely to be light soon, harder to hide.
Looking around the first thing Arthur finds to carry the food in is a sack. Eagerly emptying it of it content at least a dozen apples fall to the floor. Gleefully he picks one up and begins eating as he stuffs the bag with food. He stops at a meat pie, picks it up, then decides that it would properly not be a good thing to stuff in the sack. He takes knife and slices a generous piece for him self then offers Grumblejack the remains. Once satisfied with the chosen and consumed food he says: "I am done here, we have enough here to last the first few days."
The man lips his lips nervously. "There's a password you need to say to get past the guards on the other side of the bridge. It's 'Hesterfield'. Everybody needs to know it. That's all I know. Now let me and the missus go."
Satisfied, you tie up the pair and stuff them in a cupboard.
Nodding in satisfaction at the seemingly successful interrogation, once the couple are secured in the cupboard she will make sure everyone has grabbed a sack and food then usher everyone out.
She whispers
I think as Poki says we should be quick now we have food, I suggest we examine that other door opposite the kitchen and the storage rooms across the hall, then decide our plan and go, we will run out of time otherwise and the dawn will ruin our chances
She'll move to the other door with the others and open it, ready for anything.
"So we ransack this place and move on? What do you think is left here?" Arthur says with a smile. He moves to the tie up couple and asks: "You must know this place better than me. What is on this floor?"
Lucetta pauses and listens to the couple's response to Arthur's question, it hadn't occurred to her to just ask...
After hearing much of the couple's explanation, Iacobus grabs an apple and a meat pie for himself and a few other food items.
"Yes at this point, it would be best to get out of here as fast as possible, but I am curious if there is anything useful in the storage room."
He heads out of the kitchen in time to completely miss Arthur's questions and instead shares some of the food he collected with their look out.
"Any movement?"he whispers, "We should be moving again soon."
After finishing his meat pie and apple, Iacobus heads back into the kitchen to finish tying up the kitchen staff.
When everyone is ready and the couple have been tidied away (again?), Iacobus heads to the unlocked room to the north of the mess hall and leads the way in...
Waltzing in, you find yourselves in the prison's barracks. A few cots line the walls and several small chests are tucked beneath them. Three off duty guards lounge in the room. They look up when the door opens, "Time for shift change all.... oh holy Mitra!" Grumblejack rolls in sword swinging.
The massive ogre cuts a bloody slice through one of the guards.
Surprise!
17 Baddies
Everybody else
Thanking the shadows for GrumbleJack's presence, Lucetta moves ghost-like to the ogre's side, lashing out with her blade in an attempt to finish off the injured guard.
Mitra can't help you now... she snarls as the knife scythes down.
Poki accepts food from the sly big one. "Thank you," she whispers back. "No sign of any guards. They're stupider and lazier than usual.
After the rest of the group returns with their civilized food from the kitchen, Poki falls into step beside them, and they go through the door she had been patiently starting at.
Being the last in line Arthur follows the others in. Realising that there are guards sleeping here, he draws his sword and moves towards the closest of the now awaken men.
Iacobus enters the room right behind Grumblejack, glaces around before silently cursing and mumbling, "Great, This is just great."
He decides it is probably best to work on thinning the crowd of guards instead of intimidating people and quickly approaches the guard Arthur had struck at.
1
Combat stats:Hp 9/9; AC 18/14T/14FF; CMD 13
+0F/+5R/+2W
Buffs:
Rn 1
The wounded guard tries to disarm Arthur, , but fails.
The other tries the same desperate tactic agains the ogre
. He weaves past the the ogre's defenses, but can't wrest the sword from him.
Grumblejack laughs at the guard's pathetic attempt, "That's Grumblejack's knife, little un. My turn now.".
Grumblejack's blade cuts to the bone.
A desperate tactic Arthur thinks to himself as he takes a step back, blocks the disarm attempt with his blade and punish the desperation with the endless sleep by stepping forward impaling the guard on his blade. "Mitra doesn't always protect" he says in a hushed voice to the dying man before yanking his blade loose.
Turning from his last victim to the remaining guardsman, he smiles coldly. With out a single words he takes three steps to close the distance and using the momentum strikes an over head blow cleaving deeply into the left side of the man's torso.
Once again wresting his stolen blade free, he takes a sheet of linen and wipes the blade clean. "They shouldn't have attacked us," he says.
"They had little choice, but they certainly choose wrong," Iacobus states before taking his dagger and quickly finishing off any guards still breathing. After finishing the bloody work, he takes a quick glance around the room for any useful items.
Iacobus stands and then addresses the rest of the group, "Well, we should hit the supply closet on our way out and then get going. So far we have been running into small and unprepared groups of guards but might not be so lucky in the future."
Searching the dead guards you find little of note other than their key rings. There are a dozen small locked chests tucked out of the way in the room. Their small locks (DC20) match some of the keys that you have been finding on the guards.
Using the keys you find:
A whetstone, cleaning supplies for chain shirt, extra bowstring, and a small book of military regulations.
A collection of cheap, tawdry, crudely printed books (the so-called “penny dreadfuls”) about dashing heroes, daring do and amply bosomed damsels prone to fainting and outdoor bathing (no resale value).
A set of peasant clothes and a short sword.
A small coin pouch with 3 gp in miscellaneous coinage.
A small bag of doggy treats.
A map of the nearby town of Varyston including the Old Moor road.
A traveller’s outfit, a finely made pipe (5 gp) with a good supply (1 lb.) of high quality shag tobacco (2 gp).
Lucetta swoops in to grab the map, scanning it and absorbing the information as quickly as she can, she ignores the rest of the things as no use to her, expecting the others to grab what they can use.
She moves out to the corridor and tries the guard's keyring on the locked door. If it opens it, she'll move in to the room with the others, if not then they'll move to the unlocked door in the corridor and go in there.
"I guess you are right," Arthur says after having thought about Iacobus' reply. Looking through what Iacobus uncovered Arthur lets it be. He follows Lucetta as she moves through the prison. "So where to after these rooms?" he asks trying to plan ahead.
As none of the keys open the locked hallway door, you enter the other.
This room obviously serves as an office of sorts. There is a large table against one wall which is covered in paper work. A pair of doors lead deeper into the complex.
Thinking atleast one of the papers might aid in their escapes Arthur moves to the table and begins looking through the papers.
Lucetta, seeing Arthur holding the papers uncertainly, steps over and helps him hunt through them for anything useful, stashing anything of interest in her satchel.
She then moves over to the unlocked door and cracks it open to see what's inside.
Iacobus heads from the room after collecting the coins, short sword, and doggy treats. After a moment he grabs one of the penny dreadfuls for the humor, if nothing else.
Seeing the keys don't work on the locked doors, Iacobus leads the group into the unlocked room. At first anxious that Arthur was looking through the papers, Iacobus is preempted by Lucetta. He instead looks to working on the lock to the northern door.
Failing to get any headway, he instead joins Lucetta at the unlocked door...
Quickly loosing interest in the papers even with Lucetta's help Arthur is quick to follow her to the now open door. "Someone else shold go through the papers," he whispers.
The door opens on the slovenly- kept bed chamber of the sergeant of the guard. There is a bed, a small table and wardrobe which contain Blackerly’s personal effects, which are by in large worthless. Inside the wardrobe you find bottle of what tastes like cheap whiskey, but has an odd aftertaste. Under the bed you find a iron-bound lockbox with a excellent lock (DC30).
Iacobus scoffs at the dismal bedroom until he realizes he is not much cleaner.
Anyone want anything in the lock box right now? If not I'll give it to GrumbleJack to carry.
Noting there is little else to do in he room Iacobus returns to the locked door in the office and takes a little more time woth the lock.
"So this is where the sergeant slept, better than ours," Arthur comments. Going through the room there is little of interest disappointed He kicks the chest. "I bet the only thing worth in here is locked in that, and it is not good taking a lockbox on our escape," he says.
Leafing rapidly through the sheaf of documents Lucetta lets out a quiet bark of laughter
Ha! If I'm not mistaken, our dear Sergeant Blackerly has been stealing from his employer!
she taps a finger on her lips and smiles
I think at the very least we can leave this somewhere the warden can find it, we wouldn't want the dear sergeant to get away with his crime after all!
she stuffs the papers in her satchel and turns to address the group
Now we've pillaged what we can from here, we move to the next stage, the courtyard. Now we can try to bluff ourselves past the guards at the gate, we have the password after all, but GrumbleJack is a bit of a giveaway... she muses
I did think that I could create the illusion of one or more prisoners escaping over one of the walls on a rope, and have the guards chase after them whilst we move out of the gate, but then the entire place would be at full alert when they sounded the horn. Does anyone else have an idea? We must be quick!
"Are there any guards in the yard?" Arthur asks. "Could you perhaps disguise Grumblejack with your magic?" he inquires?
While plans are being discussed, Iacobus peers into the side room
Within, you find a store of prison supplies. There are 200 torches, ten lanterns, two 10 gallon kegs of lantern oil, six spare guard uniforms, dozen signal horns, twenty 50’ lengths of rope and two barrels labeled ‘emergency rations’. A foul odour wafts from the ration barrels and peering inside, you find them mouldy and maggoty, but possibly edible.
Shaking her head regretfully Lucetta replies to Arthur
Whilst I can create an illusion, it is a silent one that likely won't bear close scrutiny, it will not mask GrumbleJack's sounds or scent. And I could do no more than walk in order to concentrate and maintain it. If our idea is to get them to open the doors and then attack then it might be sufficient, but I am loathe to suggest more fighting as it is dangerous, sooner or later one of us will get injured and that will greatly affect our chances of getting across the moors. I think subterfuge...
she sees the uncomprehending look on Arthur's face and smiles in a motherly manner
...that is 'trying to trick them' is to my mind the best idea to start with. You know Arthur, you might have something there though...
Lucetta thinks on a moment.
I think actually that is a better suggestion, as won't have them immediately raising the alarm. If we approach dressed in these guard uniforms she indicates the stash Iacobus just uncovered
then we should be able to get close enough, along with the password, for them to open the door. Then we can strike and take them out, and bar the door to prevent anyone getting past it to pursue us. You just need to be aware that the spell may fail to fool them, we should be prepared to take the door by force. Though of course I can try to knock out the guards using the same spell I used on those upstairs earlier. Does everyone agree? Happy to entertain another plan if anyone has one...
Lucetta turns her nose up at the spoiled food in the barrels, content to rely on the fresh produce pillaged from the kitchen to sustain the group as they cross the moor.
Iacobus takes a length of rope, as many extra uniforms as needed, and a couple lanturns filled with oil. Finally, he gathers any leftover items on the barrels and, proceeds to douse the whole lot with oil. While trying to spark the fire and escape the room he conjoins, "With what we know of the yard dressing up as guards might be a workable plan. Do you have any magic that could keep GrumbleJack hidden? We might be able to draw attention off him if we carried some lanturns. Actually, these might even help mask our faces during our approach of the gates."
He takes a moment to think before continuing, slowly leading the group out of the office, "As much as I like this plan, I would still like to get a better idea of the yard and how many guards there are. We sould still be able to get on the roof from the chimney... I also want to try hitting the armory still, but I'm not going to force this issue, especially as we have a raging fire behind us."
Ah fire, now that is an excellent distraction and will give them something else they need to focus on as well as hunting us, well done
Lucetta grins
And yes I can change GrumbleJack's appearance well enough for us to get close enough to the gatehouse to strike at the guards.
she ushers everyone away from the room rapidly filling with smoke
Now you've set the fire though I think we're out of time to look anywhere else, we just need to go, so do whatever reconnaissance you need, and quickly...
"Certainly, the fire suggets we hurry... I'll go gather my information as soon as possible, but make sure you are ready when I return. It would be best if we could time the discovery of the fire with our assult on the gates."
With this the thin man heads up the steps to the second level and climbs into the still smoking chimney. He abruptly tries to grab onto the rough hewn stone but his hands slipp off the accumulated soot and plunge Iacobus into the kitchen fire below.
Nodding the suggested plan Arthur begins to done the disguise and once dressed he looks to Lucetta smiling.